The PTWC was established in April 2007 through Prevention Through Empowerment (PTE), in partnership with CACHA and the Kilimanjaro Women Information Exchange and Consultancy Organization (KWIECO).

The objective of the PTWC is to improve health in the Kilimanjaro Region through access to affordable, high quality and innovative health care models and addressing the social determinants of health. The PTWC is able to do this by assisting women affected by the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS; raising awareness of the disease by offering free medical treatment and HIV testing through a medical clinic; bi-annual medical caravans; and outreach initiatives in at-risk communities.

This research project, brought to life by Dr. Karen Yeates, tracks a cohort over 15 years on their changing lifestyles, risk factors, and chronic disease, and how the environment and built environment impacts on their health.

The Kilimanjaro Cervical Cancer Screening Project

This project helped screen over 1,000 women for cervical cancer by providing a non-physician health care worker with a smartphone camera and text messaging to bring screening into rural areas in Tanzania

The results of this projects have been published in the Journal of Global Oncology under the title “Evaluation of a smartphone-based training strategy among health care workers screened for cervical cancer in Northern Tanzania: The Kilimanjaro Method”

Next Steps

PTWC aims to expand its health outreach activities and connect them with education campaigns and community engagement. Ultimately, the PTWC would like to create a health feedback loop, with each part of the system feeding into another.

One of these micro-finance enterprises is the solar lantern/phone charging project. It provides families with an alternative source of energy, which in turn saves money, improves health, and increases study time for children

The Canada Africa Community Health Alliance (CACHA) is a non-government organization that seeks to improve the health of rural communities through partnerships to the most vulnerable in Bénin, Tanzania and Uganda.CACHA is a registered Canadian charitable organization.CRA registration # 86288 9755 RR0001.